Dille: Sony Committed To 'Targeted' UMD Format

In a new interview with United Press International, Peter Dille, SVP of marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, has been discussing the PSP's future, in particular recent studio announcements indicating lack of confidence in the UMD movie format. “SCEA has been providing the Hollywood studios with data on the PSP consumer, both from a demographic and psychographic point of view, in an effort for them to better tailor their product offering to this new and emerging market,” responded Dille to the question of how Hollywood's reaction affects the PSP. He continued: “As such, we have seen studios cutting back on releasing their full content on UMD, as unlike the DVD market, the PSP consumer is targeted. We are committed to helping the studios better understand our product and our consumer, and will continue to educate them as we evolve and enhance the functionality of the PSP.” When asked about the cross functionality between the PSP and forthcoming PlayStation 3 platform, set to ship on November 17, Dille commented: “We gave some hints at our E3 press conference, including the example we showed using the PSP as a real-time rear-view mirror in the racing game, F1. That's just scratching the surface of what we can do when we link up these two powerful platforms. Ultimately it's in the hands of the development community to create new and exciting ways that tie the systems together.” In addition, the executive was asked the thorny PSP-related question of how hard it is to market a device that stretches across multiple markets (movies,games, and music), a concept that the company will also have to contend with regarding the PlayStation 3. “Consumers vote with their wallets,” replied Dille, “and based on sales figures, the PSP has proven to be the device of choice for people who want to play console-quality games -- and watch movies, view photos, listen to music, and connect to the Internet.”